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 Nuclear Regulatory Commission [Docket Nos. 72-70, 50-373, and 50-374; NRC-2024-0205]
 AGENCY: Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
 ACTION: Notice; issuance.
 SUMMARY: The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is issuing an environmental assessment (EA) and a finding of no significant impact (FONSI) for an exemption request submitted by Constellation Energy Generation, LLC (CEG), that would permit LaSalle County Station (LSCS) to maintain four loaded and to load four 68M multi-purpose canister (MPC) with continuous basket shims (CBS) in the HI-STORM 100 Cask System at its LSCS Units 1 and 2 independent spent fuel storage installation (ISFSI) in a storage condition where the terms, conditions, and specifications in the Certificate of Compliance (CoC) No. 1014, Amendment No. 8, Revision No. 1, are not met.
 DATES: The EA and FONSI referenced in this document are available on December 20, 2024.
 ADDRESSES: Please refer to Docket ID NRC-2024-0205 when contacting the NRC about the availability of information regarding this document. You may obtain publicly available information related to this document using any of the following methods: *Federal Rulemaking website:*
                         Go to 
                        *https://www.regulations.gov*
                         and search for Docket ID NRC-2024-0205. Address questions about Docket IDs in 
                        *Regulations.gov*
                         to Stacy Schumann; telephone: 301-415-0624; email: 
                        *Stacy.Schumann*
                        @nrc.gov. For technical questions, contact the individual listed in the “For Further Information Contact” section of this document.
                    *NRC's Agencywide Documents Access and Management System (ADAMS):*
                         You may obtain publicly available documents online in the ADAMS Public Documents collection at 
                        *https://www.nrc.gov/​reading-rm/​adams.html.*
                         To begin the search, select “Begin Web-based ADAMS Search.” For problems with ADAMS, please contact the NRC's Public Document Room (PDR) reference staff at 1-800-397-4209, at 301-415-4737, or by email to 
                        *PDR.Resource@nrc.gov.*
                         For the convenience of the reader, instructions about obtaining materials referenced in this document are provided in the “Availability of Documents” section.
                    *NRC's PDR:*
                         The PDR, where you may examine and order copies of publicly available documents, is open by appointment. To make an appointment to visit the PDR, please send an email to 
                        *PDR.Resource@nrc.gov*
                         or call 1-800-397-4209 or 301-415-4737, between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. eastern time (ET), Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.
 FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Martin Ortiz Gonzalez, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001; telephone: 301-415-3637; email: 
                        *Martin.OrtizGonzalez@nrc.gov.*


SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: I. Introduction The NRC is reviewing an exemption request from CEG, dated September 19, 2024. CEG is requesting an exemption, pursuant to section 72.7 of title 10 of the 
                    *Code of Federal Regulations*
                     (10 CFR), in paragraphs 72.212(a)(2), 72.212(b)(3), 72.212(b)(5)(i), 72.212(b)(11), and 72.214 that require CEG to comply with the terms, conditions, and specifications of the CoC No. 1014, Amendment No. 8, Revision No. 1. If approved, the exemption would allow CEG to maintain four loaded and to load four new MPC-68M-CBS in the HI-STORM 100 Cask System at the LSCS ISFSI in a storage condition where the terms, conditions, and specifications in the CoC No. 1014, Amendment No. 8, Revision No. 1, are not met. II. Environmental Assessment Background The LSCS site is approximately 75 miles (mi) (120 kilometers (km)) southwest of downtown Chicago, Illinois, and approximately 26 mi (42 km) west of Exelon's Braidwood Station in Braceville, Illinois, and 23 mi (37 km) southwest of the Dresden Nuclear Power Station near Morris, Illinois. Interstate Highway 80 is 8 mi (13 km) north of the site. The LSCS site is located in a rural and agricultural setting. The town of Seneca lies 6 mi (10 km) northeast of LSCS. The town of Marseilles lies 7 mi (11 km) north-northwest of LSCS. The Illinois River is 5 mi (8 km) north of LSCS. Unit 1 and Unit 2 began operating in 1984. CEG has been storing spent fuel in an ISFSI at LSCS under a general license as authorized by 10 CFR part 72, subpart K, “General License for Storage of Spent Fuel at Power Reactor Sites.” CEG currently uses the HI-STORM 100 Cask System under CoC No. 1014, Amendment No. 8, Revision No. 1, for dry storage of spent nuclear fuel in a specific MPC (
                    *i.e.,*
                     MPC-68M) at the LSCS ISFSI. Description of the Proposed Action The CoC is the NRC-approved design for each dry cask storage system. The proposed action would exempt the applicant from the requirements of 10 CFR 72.212(a)(2), 72.212(b)(3), 72.212(b)(5)(i), 72.212(b)(11), and 72.214 only as these requirements pertain to the use of the MPC-68M-CBS in the HI-STORM 100 Cask System for the four already loaded canisters and the planned loading of four new canisters. The exemption would allow CEG to maintain four loaded and to load four new MPC-68M-CBS in the HI-STORM 100 Cask System at the LSCS ISFSI, despite the MPC-68M-CBS in the HI-STORM 100 Cask System not being in compliance with the terms, conditions, and specifications in the CoC No. 1014, Amendment No. 8, Revision No. 1. The HI-STORM 100 Cask System CoC provides the requirements, conditions, and operating limits necessary for use of the system to store spent fuel. Holtec International (Holtec), the designer and manufacturer of the HI-STORM 100 Cask System, developed a variant of the design with continuous basket shims (CBS) for the MPC-68M, known as MPC-68M-CBS. Holtec originally implemented the CBS variant design under the provisions of 10 CFR 72.48, which allows licensees to make changes to cask designs without a CoC amendment under certain conditions (listed in 10 CFR 72.48(c)). After evaluating the specific changes to the cask designs, the NRC determined that Holtec erred when it implemented the CBS variant design under 10 CFR 72.48, as this was not the type of change allowed without a CoC amendment. For this reason, the NRC issued three Severity Level IV violations to Holtec. CEG had previously loaded four MPC-68M-CBS in the HI-STORM 100 Cask System and plans to load four MPC-68M-CBS in the HI-STORM 100 Cask System beginning in June 2025. This exemption considers the storage of the 
                    ( print page 104235)
                    already loaded systems and the planned loading of the four canisters with the CBS variant basket design. Need for the Proposed Action CEG requested this exemption because CEG is currently out of compliance with NRC requirements, resulting from the previous loading of spent fuel into a storage system with the CBS variant basket design. This exemption would allow four already loaded MPC-68M-CBS in the HI-STORM 100 Cask System to remain in storage at the LSCS ISFSI. The exemption would also allow CEG to load four new MPC-68M-CBS in HI-STORM 100 Cask System at the LSCS ISFSI for the future loading campaign scheduled to begin in June 2025. Approval of the exemption request would allow CEG to effectively manage the margin to full core discharge capability in the spent fuel pool. It would also allow CEG to effectively manage the availability of the specialized resources and equipment needed to support multiple competing priorities at LSCS and throughout CEG's fleet. Environmental Impacts of the Proposed Action This EA evaluates the potential environmental impacts of granting an exemption from the terms, conditions, and specifications in CoC No. 1014, Amendment No. 8, Revision No.1. The exemption would allow four already loaded MPC-68M-CBS in the HI-STORM 100 Cask system to remain loaded at the LSCS ISFSI. The exemption would also allow four new MPC-68M-CBS to be loaded in the HI-STORM 100 Cask System in a future loading campaign and maintained in storage at the LSCS ISFSI. The potential environmental impacts of storing spent nuclear fuel in NRC-approved storage systems have been documented in previous assessments. On July 18, 1990 (55 FR 29181), the NRC amended 10 CFR part 72 to provide for the storage of spent fuel under a general license in cask designs approved by the NRC. The EA for the 1990 final rule analyzed the potential environmental impacts of using NRC-approved storage casks. The EA for the HI-STORM 100 Cask System, CoC No. 1014, Amendment No. 8, Revision No. 1 (80 FR 49887), published in 2015, tiers off of the EA issued for the July 18, 1990, final rule. “Tiering” off earlier EAs is a standard process encouraged by the regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) that entails the use of impact analyses of previous EAs to bound the impacts of a proposed action where appropriate. The Holtec HI-STORM 100 Cask System is designed to mitigate the effects of design basis accidents that could occur during storage. Considering the specific design requirements for the accident conditions, the design of the cask would prevent loss of containment, shielding, and criticality control. If there is no loss of containment, shielding, or criticality control, the environmental impacts would not be significant. The exemptions requested by CEG at the LSCS site as they relate to CoC No. 1014, Amendment No. 8, Revision No.1, for the HI-STORM 100 Cask System are limited to the use of the CBS variant basket design only for the four previously loaded canisters and planned loading of four canisters utilizing the CBS variant basket design. The NRC staff has determined that this change in the basket will not result in either radiological or non-radiological environmental impacts that significantly differ from the environmental impacts evaluated in the environmental assessment supporting the issuance of CoC No. 1014, Amendment No. 8, Revision 1. If the exemption is granted, there will be no significant change in the types or amounts of any effluents released, no significant increase in individual or cumulative public or occupational radiation exposure, and no significant increase in the potential for or consequences from radiological accidents. Accordingly, the Commission concludes that there would be no significant environmental impacts associated with the proposed action. Alternative to the Proposed Action CEG considered requesting that Holtec provide eight fully compliant canisters for the June 2025 campaign. However, CEG expects that Holtec will not be able to meet this request based on current manufacturing schedules. Additionally, CEG considered delaying the start of the 2025 campaign until Amendment No. 19 of the HI-STORM 100 CoC is approved. This delay would result in the LSCS ISFSI campaign needing to pull specialty resources which would otherwise be required to support other CEG refueling and ISFSI campaigns. The NRC staff considered the no-action alternative. The no-action alternative (denial of the exemption request) would require LSCS to unload spent fuel from the MPC-68M-CBS in the HI-STORM 100 Cask System to bring it in compliance with the CoC terms, conditions, and specifications in the CoC No. 1014, Amendment No. 8, Revision No 1. Unloading the cask would subject station personnel to additional radiation exposure, generate additional contaminated waste, increase the risk of a possible fuel handling accident, and increase the risk of a possible heavy load handling accident. Furthermore, the removed spent fuel would need to be placed in the spent fuel pool, where it would remain until it could be loaded into an approved storage cask. Not allowing the planned future loading campaign could affect LSCS's ability to manage the margin to full core discharge capability. It could also pose challenges to spent fuel heat removal and impact the availability of the specialized resources and equipment needed to support competing fuel loading and operational activities at LSCS, including spent fuel pool clean-up and refueling outages. The NRC has determined that the no-action alternative would result in undue potential human health and safety impacts that could be avoided by proceeding with the proposed exemption, especially given that the NRC staff has concluded in NRC's Safety Determination Memorandum, issued with respect to the enforcement action against Holtec regarding these violations, that fuel can be stored safely in the MPC-68M-CBS canisters. Agencies Consulted The NRC provided the Illinois Emergency Management Agency and Office of Homeland Security (IL-IEMA-OHS) a copy of this draft EA for review by an email dated November 22, 2024. On November 27, 2024, IL-IEMA-OHS provided its concurrence by email. III. Finding of No Significant Impact The environmental impacts of the proposed action have been reviewed in accordance with the requirements in 10 CFR part 51, which implement NEPA. Based upon the foregoing environmental assessment, the NRC finds that the proposed action of granting the exemption from the regulations in 10 CFR 72.212(a)(2), 72.212(b)(3), 72.212(b)(5)(i), 72.212(b)(11) and 72.214, which require the licensee to comply with the terms, conditions, and specifications of the CoC, in this case limited to the past and specific future loading of baskets with the CBS variant design, would not significantly impact the quality of the human environment. Accordingly, the NRC has determined that a finding of no significant impact (FONSI) is appropriate, and an environmental impact statement is not warranted.
                    ( print page 104236) IV. Availability of Documents The documents identified in the following table are available to interested persons through one or more of the following methods, as indicated. Document description
ADAMS Accession No. or 
                            **Federal Register**
                             noticeCEG's request for exemption, dated September 19, 2024
ML24263A206.Certificate of Compliance No. 1014, Amendment No. 8, Revision No. 1, dated February 10, 2016
ML16041A233 (Package).Holtec International, Inc.—Notice of Violation; The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Inspection Report No. 07201014/2022-201, EA-23-044, dated January 30, 2024
ML24016A190.10 CFR part 72 amendment to allow spent fuel storage in NRC-approved casks, July 18, 1990
55 FR 29181.EA for part 72 amendment to allow spent fuel storage in NRC-approved casks, March 8, 1989
ML051230231.Final rule for List of Approved Spent Fuel Storage Casks: Holtec International HI-STORM 100 Cask System, Certificate of Compliance No. 1014, Amendment No. 8, Revision 1, dated August 18, 2015
80 FR 49887.Safety Determination of a Potential Structural Failure of the Fuel Basket During Accident Conditions for the HI-STORM 100 and HI-STORM Flood/Wind Dry Cask Storage Systems, dated January 31, 2024
ML24018A085.NRC email to IL-IEMA-OHS, “State's review of EA/FONSI for LSCS Exemption,” dated November 22, 2024
ML24337A059.IL-IEMA-OHS email, “State's response regarding EA/FONSI for LSCS Exemption,” dated November 27, 2024
ML24337A057.
 Dated: December 16, 2024. For the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Yoira Diaz-Sanabria, Chief, Storage and Transportation Licensing  Branch, Division of Fuel Management, Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards.


[FR Doc. 2024-30364 Filed 12-19-24; 8:45 am] BILLING CODE 7590-01-P